1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates an electrophotographic image forming apparatus to which a process cartridge is detachably mountable, and a process cartridge detachably mountable to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
Here, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus (hereafter, referred to as an image forming apparatus) forms an image on a recording medium with the use of an electrophotographic image forming method. Examples of the image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (for example, a laser printer, a light-emitting diode (LED) printer, etc.) a facsimile machine, a wordprocessor, and a multifunction peripheral.
The process cartridge has at least one process unit configured to act on an electrophotographic photosensitive drum as an image bearing member, and is detachably mountable to a body of the image forming apparatus as a cartridge. At least any one of a charging unit, a developing unit, and a cleaning unit may be included as the process unit. Examples of the process unit include a process cartridge obtained by integrating a process unit and an electrophotographic photosensitive drum as a cartridge and detachably mountable to the body of the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus which uses an electrophotographic image formation process, a process cartridge system in which the process cartridge is detachably mountable to the body of the image forming apparatus has been employed. The process cartridge system makes it possible for a user himself to maintain the image forming apparatus without relying on a service engineer. Therefore, the operability of the image forming apparatus can be drastically improved. Thus, the process cartridge system is widely used in the image forming apparatus.
In order to obtain a satisfactory image in the image forming apparatus which uses the process cartridge (hereinafter, referred to as the cartridge), the cartridge is to be precisely mounted in a predetermined cartridge mounting position in the image forming apparatus. Interfacing portions such as various electrical contacts, and driving force transmitting portions are to be correctly connected.
Then, an image forming apparatus has been known (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003-0123896). In the image forming apparatus, a movable member having a body electrical contact is moved by an abutting portion provided at the tip of a cartridge frame member. After the movable member is positioned in a direction intersecting with a mounting direction, the body electrical contact is connected to a cartridge electrical contact. Thus, the body electrical contact provided in the image forming apparatus can be correctly connected to the cartridge electrical contact provided in the cartridge.
An image forming apparatus has been known (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006-0062589). In the image forming apparatus, in order to reduce a body electrical contact and a cartridge electrical contact in size, before the body electrical contact is electrically connected to the cartridge electrical contact, the body electrical contact is positioned in a longitudinal direction of a cartridge and in a direction intersecting with the longitudinal direction.
In light of dispersion of component sizes and a difference between coefficients of linear expansion caused by a material difference of a component in the image forming apparatus and the cartridge, proper play (clearance) is required between the image forming apparatus and the cartridge in the longitudinal direction of the process cartridge. Furthermore, it is necessary to set an amount of play to be greater in a long cartridge. However, the cartridge may be slanted by the play when the cartridge is mounted/removed to/from the image forming apparatus.